Projects such as Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant decontamination Nearly half of the national bids "one bidder"

When the Board of Audit of Japan examined more than 700 bids made by the national government for projects such as decontamination associated with the accident at the Tokyo Electric Power Company's Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station, it found that only one business operator participated in a single bid. ” accounted for nearly half.

There is a tendency for the successful bid price to be higher than in cases where multiple participants participate, and the inspection board is asking to ensure competitiveness.

On the 3rd, the Board of Audit submitted to the Diet the results of inspections of national projects such as decontamination and waste treatment associated with the accident at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant.

The Fukushima Regional Environment Office of the Ministry of the Environment examined 984 contracts with businesses totaling more than 1.7 trillion yen over the five and a half years up to September 2019. Of these, 735 were general competitive bidding. , 362 cases, or 49.3% of them, were "single bidders" in which only one business operator participated.

This percentage of "single bidders" is 15 points higher than the average of all general competitive bidding conducted by the government.

When we investigated the ratio of the successful bid price to the planned price of the contract concluded by "single bid", the so-called successful bid rate, the average was 94.6%, which was 13.3 points higher than the case where multiple bidders participated.

The Board of Audit seeks to ensure competitiveness in bidding.

Regarding these results, Shigeki Kusunoki, a professor of law at Sophia University who is familiar with the structure of public bidding, said, "It is suspected that there is a structure in which only one person can enter. If the contractor thinks in advance that 'I can win the bid', the bid price should be lowered. I don't think so, so prices tend to be high. Investigating the cause is the most important thing, and countermeasures will change accordingly."

The Ministry of the Environment has analyzed the results of its own survey of business operators and other sources, and concluded that it is becoming difficult for other business operators to enter the market because certain business operators continue to receive orders. In response to the indication, it said, "We will proceed with countermeasures after further analyzing the cause."

In some cases, the amount increased by more than 7 times from the time of contract

The Board of Audit also examined the status of the 984 contracts signed by the Ministry of the Environment.

As a result, we found 169 contracts where the amount of waste was increased by more than 30% from the initial contract due to reasons such as "the amount of waste has increased more than expected". rice field.

In fiscal 2017, a project to dispose of waste wood scraps in Tomioka Town, Fukushima Prefecture, was initially contracted for more than 50 million yen. It had been increased too much.

Persons involved in subcontracting companies “One bidder” “Segregation is ready”

Regarding the background of the continuation of "one-party bidding", an official of a major general contractor's subcontractor who has been involved in decontamination projects said, "Every company worked on a model project that was ordered before a full-scale order. I would like to continue the work as it is and receive orders, but in order to do so, it is important to have a "strong relationship with the community" through business.For this reason, major general contractors and joint ventures and , Each municipality and each region have been segregated."

He added, "Because human resources and equipment are limited, each company researches construction projects in which they are best able to attract cooperating companies, and bids while collecting information, including whether there are rivals. We bid on each other while looking at the contents, and the vendors around us say, ``Because a specific company has received orders for projects in that area for many years, let's go to another company instead of that company.'' I make decisions,” he said.

On top of that, he said, "Since decommissioning work, infrastructure development in the disaster area, and regional development will be in full swing, major general contractors are expected to further enclose in order to build a foothold for receiving orders, and one-person bids will increase more and more. No?" he said.

As for the reason for the series of contract changes, he said, ``The design and cost estimates are carried out by the Ministry of the Environment and other organizations that place orders, but at that time, they do not fully reflect the local information, topography, and the voices of landowners. It has a big impact on designing in the same way by applying the data of the normal construction work done in .

On top of that, ``If the details of the order are not finalized, and when you go to the site, the conditions are completely different, or the landowner opposes it, and it takes extra time and money, naturally, ``I want you to take care of it. For the ordering side, if the order is placed as a separate project, the cost will increase accordingly, so it is often done urgently to include it in the construction that has already been ordered."

44 reconstruction-related projects extended

The Board of Audit also inspected projects related to reconstruction from the Great East Japan Earthquake and submitted a report to the Diet.

Of these, the "reconstruction subsidy project," which invested more than 3.3 trillion yen to improve housing in the affected areas and tsunami disaster prevention, was abolished in fiscal 2020, 10 years after the outbreak. , According to the Board of Audit, 44 projects, such as the maintenance of community roads and projects to raise the ground level in areas where fisheries are carried out, have been extended until this fiscal year.

The Board of Audit is asking the Reconstruction Agency to advise municipalities so that the project will be completed by the end of this fiscal year.

In addition, the Reconstruction Agency announced that there were 3,670 evacuees in Miyagi Prefecture as of March 2019, based on calculations using the National Evacuee Information System in order to ascertain the number of people evacuating outside the prefecture. was doing.

However, after that, Miyagi Prefecture conducted its own fact-finding survey and announced that there were 87 evacuees outside the prefecture during the same period.

The Board of Audit has requested that efforts be made to accurately ascertain the number of evacuees, stating that "the Reconstruction Agency's announcement includes many people who are believed to have already finished evacuating."

Regarding the inspection results, the Reconstruction Agency said, ``Based on the findings, we will continue to work to accelerate reconstruction by cooperating with related ministries and agencies and local governments to respond to the current reconstruction situation, issues, and needs.'' .